Though it’s typically touted as one of many most secure cities in Washington, Camas nonetheless grapples with crime.
In 2024, the Camas Police Division responded to about 13,000 requires service, together with 5,000 visitors stops and greater than 300 experiences of high-priority calls, reminiscent of assaults, burglaries, intercourse crimes, demise investigations and robberies, Chief Tina Jones advised the Camas Metropolis Council on Monday.
“We continue to have an incredibly low crime rate in our city, and my staff is doing a good job investigating and holding offenders accountable when we do have crime,” Jones advised metropolis officers.
Jones added that her division continues to wrestle with sufficient staffing ranges. To maintain tempo with the town council’s purpose of getting 1.5 cops for each 1,000 residents, her division would want to extend its staffing from 30 sworn members to 40.5, Jones advised metropolis leaders in November.
Jones mentioned this week that being understaffed contributes to delayed response occasions in sure components of the town.
“We’re having to go a farther distance, and there are more pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles to navigate. These are indicators, red flags that our system is stressed and that we don’t have enough resources,” Jones mentioned.
The police division strives to maintain response occasions below six minutes for its highest precedence calls. In 2024, the division met its response-time targets in areas of Camas close to the town’s downtown, Lacamas Lake and Camas Excessive College, with a median response time of 5 minutes and 25 seconds for precedence 1 calls and 4 minutes and 40 seconds for precedence 2 calls.
Common police response occasions within the metropolis’s western and northern areas, nevertheless, failed to satisfy the division’s targets, with common response occasions of six minutes and 57 seconds for precedence 1 calls and 6 minutes and 33 seconds for precedence 2 calls.
“We’re continuing to see more demand for our services, which is driving up our response times,” Jones advised The Columbian on Tuesday. “Given our present staffing, that’s one thing we’re going to proceed to see exacerbate over time.
“It is really critical for our community to understand that, if we don’t appropriately resource and grow our department as the community grows, then our service levels will drop, and response times will drop. And we won’t be able to get there as quickly,” Jones mentioned.
In February, Camas voters rejected a poll measure that might have elevated the town’s utility taxes by 4 % to fund a police staffing improve. In response, Jones has seemed for efficiencies in her division.
“We are not able to increase staffing to meet demands, so we have to be innovative and use technology,” Jones mentioned. “Finding ways to leverage technology to increase efficiencies and improve our service to the community has been a key goal for us.”
Jones mentioned she was capable of absolutely employees her detective division in 2024 following a retirement and a promotion in that division in 2023.
In 2024, Camas detectives labored on 411 experiences, investigated 146 circumstances, accomplished 56 search warrants, assisted with three police taking pictures investigations, took on 58 Grownup Protecting Providers and 26 Little one Protecting Providers circumstances, did 26 intercourse offender registration checks, and referred 26 arrests or prices to the Clark County Prosecuting Legal professional’s Workplace.
“They handled an extraordinary caseload on top of attending over 200 hours of critical training,” Jones mentioned. “And some of the cases we’ve had have been shocking as far as some sex crimes and abuse of juveniles — really difficult and complex cases both emotionally and technically.”
Different 2024 police division statistics present code enforcement officers responded to 102 requires the whole lot from overgrown vegetation to deserted autos; parking enforcement officers issued 1,529 parking tickets downtown and at Heritage Park; college useful resource officers dealt with 470 calls and made three arrests; and the information division performed 290 background checks, 711 public information requests and dealt with 3,297 police experiences.
Jones advised The Columbian on Tuesday that it’s humbling to have a look at what her division achieved in 2024.
“This report is kind of a distillation of our team’s really incredible work,” Jones mentioned. “It’s hard to highlight everything.”
